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I was sitting at my desk, fiddling with a random pen from my cup when I noticed that it had multiple colors. 

"Katy," Brady said while walking in. "You're next." 

I sighed, getting impatient while waiting for my turn. 

It's the start of a new month which means it's the start of a new project. That means I get to go to a whole new city and experience yet another vacation. The best part? It's all paid for. Here at Travel Addict Weekly, at the start of every month, we writers have a meeting with our CEO and boss, Ms. Lydia Blossom. She may not be the nicest person, but I can live with that as long as I get to keep my dream job. 

For as long as I can remember, all I've wanted to do was get out of my tiny neighborhood, get away from everything that was in my past, and explore the world. And when I landed an internship here during my last years of college, my dreams came true. In exchange for getting prepaid trips to any city, Ms. Blossom and I agree on, I write a monthly article about how my trip went. 

The famous spots, the secret gems of each city, even the regular day-to-day life that small neighborhoods there experience. My section of the magazine includes writing articles on family vacation destinations and honeymoon destinations. Never mind the fact that I'm as single as can be and travel with a co-worker who is nothing more to me than that, but it's still fun. All employees of Travel Addict Weekly would agree. 

All of us except him, probably. That one grump. 

There's always that one person in every group, whether that be a group of friends or co-workers, who just ruins everybody's mood. Like that one student who reminds the teacher of the homework nobody did. In our office, that's Joshua Everett Nilsen. 

I tried pressing down all the buttons on the pen at the same time and let out another breath before putting the pen away and taking out the journal I keep to plan out all my trips. I read over the possible cities that I had shortlisted for this next trip and then turned on my computer, looking through the cities more than I already had. 

When the glass door at the front of the room opened and then closed again, I looked up, my eyes landing on Katy. She scanned the room, her eyes meeting mine. I raised my brows, thinking my turn was next but she glanced pointedly towards the person on the other side of my computer screen. 

I blinked in confusion. 

"Tell him," she mouthed.

My brows furrowed. "You tell him," I mouthed back. 

She shook her head and quickly went back to her seat. 

I sighed, rolling my eyes. I tilted my head to one side, looking past my computer. "Josh." 

His head popped up, mirroring mine as he looked at me with a sharp, lifted brow. "Poppy," he said. 

"You're next," I told him. 

"Why are you telling me that instead of Katy?" he asked, standing up while rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. 

I rested my elbow on the table and held my chin in the palm of my hand. "Because she's intimidated by you," I answered. 

He rolled his eyes, grabbing his journal and leaving the room. 

I scoffed, still in disbelief of his arrogance, but turned my attention back to my own journal. 

"Pops." I looked over my shoulder where Owen sat. He spun his chair to face mine so I did the same. Owen is my partner for all the trips. He travels with me and writes articles with me as well. Almost every writer here has a partner, someone they work with and coordinate everything with. Both partners write their own separate articles that are published together, that way people get more than one person's point of view. 

"What's up?" 

"Can I talk to you for a second?" he asked. 

"Sure," I nodded. 

"Not here. Outside," he mumbled. 

I paused. "But I'm the last one, it's my turn next." 

"I won't take too long." 

I sighed and then stood up, following him out and into the coffee room. "Is this about our next trip? Do you have another city in mind? Other than the ones we discussed?" 

He shook his head, closing the door and then facing me. I eyed him weirdly. He'd been acting strange since we got back from our last trip, which was about two weeks ago, but I didn't want to say anything in case it was something personal. But now, it's really worrying me. 

"What's wrong?" I asked. 

"You remember our last trip, right?" 

I nodded, "To Madrid, yeah." 

"Well uh," he fidgeted with his hands, first pocketing them then taking them out and cracking his knuckles, then fixing his tie. 

"Owen?" I prompted. 

"Right, sorry. You remember our tour guide on that trip?" 

I nodded again. We hired a tour guide because of the language barrier. Usually, one partner out of two knows a language and while I'm moderate at Spanish, Owen doesn't speak a word of it. And we needed someone who knew more Spanish than I did, so we hired a tour guide. "Yeah. Her name was Bella." 

"Oh, you even remember her name," he said, forcing an awkward chuckle. 

I leaned against the wall, folding my arms. "What's wrong with you? What happened?" 

"Okay," he cleared his throat. "I'm just going to say it." 

I nodded one more time. 

"You know how in our employment contract, there's that clause. No um, no involvement of any kind, personal, physical, or emotional with any co-worker or temporary co-worker we interact with on a trip?" 

Dread settled into the pit of my stomach and I stood up straight. "Owen." 

"Yeah, well... I fucked up." 

"Owen..." 

He groaned, dragging a hand down his face. 

"Owen, what did you do?" 

He stared at me through his fingers. "I slept with her." 

I gasped, staring at him, stunned. "Owen!" 

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier? Wha..." I trailed off, shocked. "When?" 

"Our last night there, after we went to the club." 

I blinked in confusion. "But we left the club together." 

"I told her my hotel room, she stopped by after that," he admitted, staring at his shoes. 

"Wh- why? Why are you telling me this now? It's been two weeks." 

He stared at me guiltily. 

"Owen," I scolded. 

"I think Lydia found out." 

"No," I cried out. "Are you kidding me?" 

He shook his head. "I overheard her on the phone this morning with Bella. She called to ask about the charges since Bella told us she'd be out of Madrid, remember?" 

"Yeah," I muttered. 

Bella told us that she'd be leaving the same night as us and would come back to Madrid in two weeks. She said we should reach out and settle the payment then. 

"Yeah well, when Lydia called her to thank her and settle the payment, Bella said she had a great time showing us around." 

"So?" 

"So then she proceeded to ask for my number." 

I clenched my jaw, glaring at him. "And then?" 

"And when uh, when Lydia asked her why, she said she wanted to see me again." 

"Then?" 

He hesitated, "Then Lydia asked why and Bella said..." 

"Bella said what?" 

"Bella said she was wondering if I was single because our last night was lots of fun and she wanted to hook up again."

I stared at him in disbelief. "She told Lydia that?"

He groaned, "It's not like she knows who Lydia is. She must have thought it was just another employee from our magazine. Who would have thought Lydia would call her herself? Usually, her assistant does that." 

"Yeah but Grace is on leave!" I exclaimed. 

"How would Bella know that?" he argued. 

We stood in silence for a minute and I started getting more nervous for my turn. 

What if I get in trouble because of this? 

"Why are you telling me this now?" I repeated the same question. 

"I think Lydia's going to fire me," he admitted. 

I rolled my eyes. "Please, she's not going to fire you." 

"She is, Pops. You know how strict she is with her rules. Just because she lets us plan our trips by ourselves doesn't mean we can break the rules. She's going to fire me. I'm telling you. And if she isn't, then I might just fucking quit." 

"You can't quit, you're my partner." I smacked his arm, harder than I intended to. I rubbed it, looking at him sheepishly. "Look, we'll figure it out, okay? I- I'll uh, I'll do something about it. Come up with some excuse." 

"There is no excuse. I slept with her, I broke the contract. It's going to cost me my job." 

"Say that more and you'll manifest it." 

He rolled his eyes at me. "Be realistic. You know I'm done for." 

I didn't want to admit it but yeah... he was done for. Lydia was a meticulous woman when it came to rules and when she says something, she means it. Especially if she says it through a contract. We were told very clearly, every employee is when they're hired, that they can't have any relationship with any co-worker or any professional we meet in any other destination while traveling either. And if we do, then Lydia has every right to fire us if she wants. 

I've been working at this firm for about three years now and I started working full time right after my college graduation, about two years ago. The whole two years I've worked here, Owen's been my partner. 

And Josh has been my nightmare, but that's not important right now. 

I had no idea what to do without Owen. He plans everything with me, helps with my articles whenever I'm stuck, he's like my best friend. I might be screwed if he's fired. "What do we do?" he asked nervously. 

"We pray," I scoffed. 

The door opened, startling us both. I took a step back, making room and letting Josh enter. He stared down at me. "Thanks for making me run around looking for you." 

I rolled my eyes. "Our office room is right there. Sorry, if I made you walk ten feet from there." 

"Ten feet is a lot. I could fit two of you in that much space," he taunted, grabbing a water bottle for himself while I glowered at him. "It's your turn. And take your partner with you. She's asking for both of you." Josh turned to Owen now. "What did you do? Can't be worse than Poppy." 

Both Owen and I looked at him in confusion. 

"That's it, it just can't be worse than her," he shrugged, earning an eye roll from me. 

"Oh, it so can," Owen mumbled, walking out. 

I clicked my tongue softly, glancing at Josh, who seemed so amused at our misery. 

"Trouble in paradise?" he smirked, drinking from the bottle. 

I glanced down at his clothes. "Your tie's crooked. Here." I reached over, planning to squeeze the bottle and make him choke but he took my wrist gently, pulling my hand down. 

"I know what you're doing," he smirked. 

"I tried," I said with a shrug and then left. 

Asshole. I really hate that guy.

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